Matt Carlson

For my entire life, my motto has been: if it’s a game, I’ll play it. I was addicted to boardgames at an early age, perhaps because our family tradition was a boardgame for each kid on Christmas morning to go with our stockings. During family meetings I was always in charge of games and snacks (and thus the family was subjected to many boardgames and far too many raisin-related snacks…)

As I’ve grown older (and gained several people in the family department), I find gaming time has become harder to come by. I run a boardgame club at my high school (I’m a science teacher by day), and am a founding member of a local biweekly boardgame club. However, aside from those two main events I find face to face boardgaming is in short supply. As my boys get older I expect to regain some of that lost time with new opponents, but for now you will often see me writing here on Opinionated Gamers about kid’s boardgames (for the very youngest set 3 or 4 years and older…)

Thus, I often play video and computer games since they provide a ready opponent, but board games are my first choice. Even in electronic format I lean towards the boardgame-style of games such as turn-based strategy, real-time strategy, or more turn based Role-Playing games. If I can find an electronic port of a boardgame to allow me to challenge a computer opponent, all the better! I find computer versions of boardgames an excellent exercise to explore many different strategies in a game in a short time – since an electronic version of a boardgame can take far less time than a face to face game.

When I’m not playing (or writing about) boardgames, I do dabble in some computer and video games. You can sometimes find me spreading boardgame joy to the videogame masses over at www.GamingWithChildren.com.

Finally, my non-gaming passion is probably science education. I love to explain just how funky science can be. If you’re a fan of goofy science things, feel free to swing by my Science video site if you want to see my green hair (or its color of the week) in action: www.ScienceTheater.net. Or for an easier access to my videos, just check out Dr. Carlson’s Science Theater up on YouTube. (And yes, I realize the theme music marks me as a product of the 80’s…)